Ion's Modern and Sci-Fi Homebrew Mishmash

Beastlord

Skills: A beastlord adds Handle Animal and Ride to his list of class skills.

Wild Empathy (Ex): A beastlord can improve the initial attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person (see Using Skills). The beastlord rolls 1d20 and adds his beastlord level and his Charisma bonus to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.

To use wild empathy, the beastlord and the animal must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

A beastlord can also use this ability to influence a mutant animal with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.

Animal Companion (Ex): A beastlord forms a close bond with an animal companion. This ability functions like the druid animal companion. The beastlord gains a +2 bonus on wild empathy and Handle Animal checks made regarding his animal companion.

The beastlord may have more than one animal companion, but he must divide up his effective druid level between his companions to determine the abilities of each companion.

For example, a beastlord with an effective druid level of 4 can have one 4th-level companion, two 2nd-level companions, or one 1st-level and one 3rd-level companion.

Each time a beastlord’s effective druid level increases, he must decide how to allocate the increase among his animal companions (including the option of adding a new 1st-level companion). Once an effective druid level is allocated to a particular companion, it cannot be redistributed while that companion is in the beastlord’s service (he must release a companion or wait until a companion dies to allocate its levels to another companion).

Empathic Link (Su): At 6th level the beastlord shares an empathic link with all of his animal companions. This functions like an empathic link with a familiar, except the beastlord can also see through a companion’s eyes as a swift action, maintaining this connection as long as he likes (as long as the companion is within 1 mile) and ending it as a free action. The beastlord can only see through the eyes of one companion at a time, and is blinded while maintaining this connection.

Advanced Companion (Ex): A beast lord may apply up to two instances of the Boon Companion feat to a single companion, but still can’t increase his effective druid level past his total HD.

Bonus Feats (Ex): At 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter a Beastlord gains a bonus feat of her choosing.